Personal Financial Planning
Most people meet a financial advisor because they want or need to buy a product or service. Perhaps it is a mortgage, or life cover, or a self-administered pension that you want to talk to us about. Whatever it might be, the focus is generally on one particular aspect of your finances. Once you engage in the Financial Planning process with us, and we have assessed your current situation and your aspirations, we will provide you with a greater understanding of the direction you can take. It will ensure Financial Efficiency while creating solutions that are suitable specifically to you.
Specific areas which provide these solutions are:
- Life & mortgage cover – Protection for you and your family in the event of the untimely death of you or your partner. Some life policies, for the benefit of your family, allow tax relief on the premiums
- Serious Illness and Income Protection – Two different types of insurance designed to protect you in the event of a serious illness or an inability to work, one is a tax free lump sum payout, and the other is a taxable income but you get tax relief on the premiums paid.
- Retirement Planning – Overall planning of assets and pensions to provide an income in retirement
- Savings and Investments – For short, medium and long term
- Inheritance Planning – Planning tax efficient transfer of assets
- Wealth Management – Maintaining the purchasing power of your capital and risk management
- Reducing debt and minimising taxes
- Business Protection – For those that require solutions in partnerships or companies
Pensions and Retirement Planning
Planning for your retirement is not just about having a pension. It is about looking at your overall financial plan. Income in retirement may come from your savings, investments, properties you own now or may own in the future, other assets, and from pensions. You may be starting out now, or reaching your retirement. As one of our areas of expertise, we can draw up a plan that suits you which will enhance your tax efficiency and give you a concrete path to help alleviate any concerns. The choices are endless so we aim to provide guidance and clarity to you, initially, and through regular reviews to allow for inevitable changes in your life.
Pension Planning
- Self-employed pensions
- Employee pensions
- Proprietary Directors pensions
Whichever category you belong to, you will get tax relief at your marginal rate on contributions to your pension up to revenue limits, which are considerably generous.
Employees and Self-employed
Pension contributions allowed from the individual, in respect of gaining full tax relief, range from 15% of earnings to 40% depending on age. For example, A self-employed individual, or employee aged 50 can contribute 30% of their earnings up to a maximum earnings limit of €115,000.
Directors
A proprietary Director who owns 20% or more of the company has different rules which allow a much larger pension to be built up in a shorter time, and can fund their pension from the company to target a maximum pension of 2/3 final remuneration upon completion of 10 years’ pensionable service. For an individual aged 50, who has no other pensions in place, the company may contribute 178% of his salary and the company can claim corporation tax relief on these contributions.
Group Schemes
Setting up the most competitively priced group occupational pension scheme for your Employees is the easy part, since we have agencies with all Life & Pension companies in Ireland. Providing a service to your administrators and each Employee thereafter is where Schofield Financial & Accounting Services Ltd. will prove to be the best choice for your company.
Where and how to invest in your pension
Whichever pension route you take, your choices open up. Where should you invest your pension contributions? Following a risk assessment and your own personal preferences, we will guide you through the many options. You may have a Personal Pension or Executive Pension with a life company and invest in a diversified fund, a more complex mix of alternative investments and shares, or you may have a specific requirement to invest in a capital secure investment. Alternatively, you may want to manage your own pension scheme assets under a self-administered scheme. We will advise you of your options within the legislation and get you where you want to go.
Post Pension Planning
- Retirement Tax Free Lump Sum
- Use residual or part residual fund to purchase an Annuity
- Invest in an Approved Retirement Fund/Approved Minimum Retirement Fund (ARF/AMRF)
- Take an additional taxable lump sum
Lump Sum Payouts on Death or Illness
None of us want Insurance but most of us need it. Life Assurance provides us with peace of mind that our families will be looked after financially if we die prematurely. Serious illness cover provides a lump sum payout if we are diagnosed with specific serious illnesses. The importance of having these Protection Policies in place normally increases with mortgages or other debt. We can provide these through any Life Company operating in Ireland, thereby assuring you of our ability to access the most competitive rate for what you need.
Businesses can also protect themselves with Partnership or Directors Insurance or Keyman Insurance. Having this in place would prevent financial hardship, sale of business, or additional loans being required in order to pay off surviving Partner’s estate, or would provide funds to keep a buisness going in the event of the death of a key individual.
Income Protection
Partnership Insurance and Co-Director Insurance can protect your business from serious financial difficulty in the event of death of your colleagues. These insurances are designed to keep the partnership in the surviving partner(s) name(s) or the shares of the deceased in the company, using the life proceeds to pay the estate.
Keyperson insurance are often used for security against company loans with a bank, or can be used when an employee or director’s role in the company is vital for the continued success. The cash injection to the company, on death of a keyperson, can allow the company to restructure and allow for short term losses.
Savings and Investments
When you step away from deposits, savings and investments can seem complicated and the choice too wide. You can invest in shares, commodities, property, diverse funds, currency, structured bonds and much more. Once we have ascertained whether you’re investing for the short, medium or long term, and have completed a risk profile like the one below, we can narrow the choice for you and give you guidance to invest in what is right for you.
There are also other factors to consider such as the tax charged on profits from deposits and investments. For example, if you are over 65 you may decide to invest in deposits as you will not be liable for DIRT, but you would be liable for Exit tax on a typical investment fund. Other funds are charged with capital gains at a lower rate than exit tax which will appeal to some, particularly if they have losses to offset.
All Investors invest to make a profitable return and many Investors are now looking for a profitable return from companies that incorporate environmental, social, and governance considerations (ESG) into their investment decisions. Environmental policies affect how companies’ activities impact on nature, including climate change. Social policies affect how companies operate in their communities, e.g. the working conditions of employees. Governance policies affect how companies’ operate their anti-corruption rules and internal culture, their board diversity, executive pay and relationships with regulators. Most product providers now incorporate ethical or sustainable funds within their choice of funds, which may be managed internally or externally. Like other funds, these funds will have factsheets and key information that will be provided by Schofield Financial & Accounting Services Ltd. to Investors at point of request and/or recommendation with a statement of suitability of the investment, and funds therein. Investing in companies or funds that follow good ESG policies, rather than those that do not, may mean a difference in the return afforded. Schofield Financial agrees with the European Commission Action plan for Sustainable Finance statement that “the consideration of sustainability factors in the Investment decision-making and advisory processes can realise benefits beyond financial markets. It can increase the resilience of the real economy and the stability of the financial system. In so doing, it can ultimately impact on the risk-return of financial products”.